Stream It Or Skip It: ‘World On Fire’ On PBS, About How The First Year Of World War II Affected Ordinary Lives In Europe

World On Fire first aired on the BBC in 2019, where it was well-received. It’s an ambitious production, even by British drama standards, with a massive cast spread out in four different countries. In a character-driven drama of this scope, the storytelling needs to be strong and coherent for viewers to stay interested. Read on to see if that goal was met.

WORLD ON FIRE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A fascism rally in Manchester, England, March 1939. While the crowd is chanting “FASCIST! FASCIST!”, two young people start singing loudly in order to disrupt the rally.

The Gist: The couple who disrupted the rally are arrested; Lois Bennett (Julia Brown), a singer and activist, is bailed out by her father Douglas (Sean Bean), a bus driver who publishes a pacifist newsletter and gives it out at train stations. He’s proud of what she did and doesn’t mind telling everyone, including the arresting officers, that they should have locked up the fascists instead. Harry Chase (Jonah Hauer-King), an interpreter for the British Embassy in Warsaw, on the other hand, is bailed out by his wealthy and uptight mother Robina (Lesley Manville), who wishes he’d just go back to diplomatic work and not embarrass her family. Lois decides right there at the police station to let Harry loose.

Five months later, on the Polish-German border, American radio reporter Nancy Campbell (Helen Hunt) discovers that the Nazi army is convening a huge troop buildup at the border, ready to overrun the neighboring city of Danzig and roll through Poland. She goes back to Warsaw to warn her colleague Harry Chase to not only warn his bosses at the Embassy, but also to encourage his barmaid girlfriend Kasia Tomaszesk (Zofia Wichłacz) to leave Poland. When he waffles, she tells him “to do the right thing, not the British thing.” Nancy feels the need to warn her nephew, Webster O’Connor (Brian J. Smith), a doctor in Paris, to leave, as well. Webster is too busy spending all night at a jazz club, watching a particular band member play.

Back in Manchester, Lois begins to regret pushing Harry away, an she goes to Robina to see how well he’s doing. Robina dismisses her, claiming that she’s an “elitist,” and wouldn’t want her son around the likes of her. Little do both of them know that he is seriously thinking of asking Kasia to marry him so they can go back to England together. In Warsaw, Harry obliquely tries to get the blessing from her father Stefan (Tomasz Kot), right before he rejoins the polish army with Kasia’s brother Gregorz (Mateusz Więcławek). Their small patrol are quickly overrun by the Germans, with Stefan being killed when he tried to surrender. Gregorz and another soldier try to escape, but the sickly soldier coughs and sneezes to the point where he gives away where they’re hiding.

Nancy returns to her home base of Berlin, but is frustrated by the Nazi government censorship of her radio reports. Lois, still thinking about Harry, is frustrated that she has to take care of her father and her brother Tom (Ewan Mitchell), who always seem to be one step ahead of the cops. Harry marries Kasia, who still wants to remain home and defend her country, but seemingly relents when she shows up with her little brother Jan (Eryk Biedunkiewicz) to the train station… and puts him on the train instead of her.

Our Take: Word On Fire, written by Peter Bowker (Blackpool), was popular enough when it first aired by the BBC in 2019 that it’s already been picked up for a second season. It’s not hard to understand why; though the first episode is a bit disjointed as it tries to services its enormous cast in four different locations, the stories of these ordinary people dealing with the beginning of yet another war, promises to be a fascinating watch.

It presents an interesting dichotomy; in Bean, Hunt and Manville, you have three people who were young adults when World War I started two decades earlier, so they have some experience with the hell of war and how a seemingly safe harbor can be blown apart in days. But Brown, Hauer-King and Wichłacz play young, more idealistic adults who may not remember how destructive the last war was. That contrast is compelling, especially as the Germans begin to march across France and start air raids in England.

But the first hour of the 7-episode first season does a ton of throat clearing before it even gets to the point where the Germans invade. We first have to establish Harry and Lois, Nancy’s work and her nephew, Harry’s new relationship with Kasia and his rocky relationship with his mother, and Lois’ relationship with her family. This all takes place in four different locations, and that exposition drains a lot of the energy from the first episode.

Keeping track of who’s who and how they’re connected — and believe us, they’re all connected to each other somehow — took a lot of effort, distracting us from really getting into the storytelling of the episode. But the performances from the entire cast, but most notably Hunt and Bean, tells us that once the dots are connected, the story will be much more accessible.

Sex and Skin: Harry and Kasia wake up naked after they get married, but we only see them from the shoulders up.

Parting Shot: Kasia waves goodbye to the train with her brother and new husband on it, wondering if she’ll ever see either of them again. “If you love me, you’ll take good care of Jan,” she says through the door to Harry as the train pulls away.

Sleeper Star: Zofia Wichłacz is World On Fire‘s secret weapon, deceivingly fierce and determined to defend Poland instead of run away with his rich British husband.

Most Pilot-y Line: When a nurse pulls what looks to be some glitter from Webster’s neck, we know that he’s burning the candle at both ends. But we’re not sure why he fielded the phone call from his aunt at the club. Does he visit there? Does he work there? Is he just there to see Albert Fallou (Parker Sawyers), who comes to him for treatment after getting beaten up by far-right thugs?

Our Call: STREAM IT. World On Fire is certainly a character-driven drama, but those characters, and the fine performances that shape them, are more than enough to work through the disjointed first episode and see where their lives go as World War II grows in scope and danger.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream World On Fire On PBS.org